Sustainable Planning

Sustainable planning is a joint effort among many different related parties including citizens, communities, and several layers of governmental bodies. Among many things this brings specific regions together to deal with common issues, mainly economic and environmental concerns. These include proper transportation policies with the help of regional governmental entities such as Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) or Councils of Governments (COGs). Our MPO Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) deals with these types of issues along with infrastructure development, air quality problems and evaluations, and land management policies dealing with growth to the region (Wheeler 137-141). Wheeler also talks about how these MPOs deal with equity issues stating, “planners and public agencies have increasingly considered the degree to which lower-income neighborhoods and communities of color are exposed to toxic chemicals, pollution, and locally unwanted land uses” (Wheeler 147-148).

Additionally, the phrase or term “New Urbanism” has floated to the surface among many urban communities throughout the nation. This includes a greater mix of land use, increased use of residential densities, and preserving wildlife and green space areas (Wheeler, 156). With this we also have the adoption of five specific values, limiting urban sprawl, new expansion taking place next to current urban areas, visual connections within the region, mixture of land use, and the integration of the natural landscape (Wheeler, 163-164). The tail end of sustainable planning includes neighborhood planning that deals with area-specific design, traffic-calming and prevention of congestion, investment of green space (parks and recreational areas), ecological restoration, along with the economic problems and issues such as equity that are common to the area (Wheeler, 199-203).